Forgotten
by CaptainDarkElf
Summary: In, Out, In, Out. Chat Noir forced himself to breath. They didn't know him. And now he was terrified. He didn't want to go back. Not to his old life. Now that he had tasted freedom, he refused to give it up. He would fix this. He would not remain forgotten.
1. Suspect to Murder

Chat Noir was running, fear making him move faster than usual, and using his staff to push himself farther than he ever had before. His pursuers were intently following him, Chat couldn't risk looking behind him otherwise he would slow down and then he would be caught. Seeing a green flash out of the corner of his eye, Chat allowed himself to drop between two buildings. He felt the wind as the green shield passed over his head.

As soon as his feet hit the ground Chat was moving. He couldn't afford to pause or stumble or he would be caught. He just needed to find a spot to hide, and then he could think about what was happening.

"_Where should hide?!"_he looked down both sides of the street, looking for anything that could offer a place to hide.

"_There!"_, his eyes zeroed in on a manhole covering, further down the street. It would be close, but if he made it, he could jump into the sewers and lose his pursuers in the dark. Not his first pick in hiding places, but he was out of options and negotiation had been tossed out the window about 30 blocks ago.

Moving forward he jerked to the side, just barely dodging a yo-yo that would have entangled him. It instead hit the road, and he raced forward, now heading towards the covering. If he made it in, he would have much better chances of getting away.

"Stop right there!" he heard behind him. "_Stop? Yeah, right"_, he thought, his thoughts almost hysterical. Reaching the manhole, he used his staff to help throw the cover off, and he tossed himself headfirst into the darkness.

And then jerked to a stop as someone grabbed his ankle.

"I got him!", someone shouted above. Chat scowled, "_No, you don't actually"_, and he used his staff to hit the black gloved hand that had grabbed him. The person yelped in pain and let go. Chat dropped the rest of the way, hitting the floor with a thump. He didn't wait to hear what they were going to do, choosing to sprint down one of the tunnels.

"_They'll need to make a quick plan, now that this chase is in the dark and in tunnels. They can't just charge after me"_ he thought. Which would allow him to put some distance between them, and to find a spot to hide.

He raced down the tunnels, taking random turns, every step bringing him farther away from capture. After what felt like an eternity, he slowed to a stop, breathing heavily through his nose. He glanced around the room he was in.

He was standing in a tunnel, on the top of a small staircase, trenches where the water would flow were in front of him. At one end of the tunnel he could see a ladder leading to the surface. Chat stepped off the stairs, trying to force his legs to stop shaking.

In the distance he could hear snatches of conversation from his pursuers. "—_him here – down this tunnel! – go, our time – next time."_

Well, it sounded like they were going to stop the search for now. Chat took a deep breath. That chase had been, well, terrifying. He hadn't wanted to get caught, and he didn't want to hurt anyone either. Looking down at his arm, he could see where one of them had managed to hurt him, a wound on his arm was bleeding slowly. He wasn't sure when it had happened or who had done it, but it's presence just showed that they either didn't care about whether they hurt him, or they were intentionally out to hurt him. And they had been so _angry_ when it happened, and he had no clue why.

Glancing back down the tunnel he just came from; Chat made his way to the ladder.

"_Home, I just need to make it home"_, was all that was going through his head. Everything else was secondary. Once home, well, he could figure out more once he was home.

At the top of the ladder he carefully lifted the covering, peeking outside. The sun was starting to set, and it looked like no one was hanging around . Chat slipped out of the sewer and quickly made his way to the nearest alley. He paused once hidden in the dark again.

He didn't want to take off his ring because that would make it difficult to sneak back into his house. But he also didn't want to leave it on because then he would be spotted, he could've _already _been spotted, just coming out of the sewer.

Ok, the important thing here is that he needed to get home. He knew that the others wouldn't be able to chase after him for some time. And he also knew that he couldn't sneak into the house properly, as tired as he was. So, he would stay as Chat Noir, and just make a beeline for home.

"Ok", he breathed out, "ok, so let's do this." Chat stood up fully, looking in the direction his home was in. He pulled himself onto the roof of the building he was standing next to and started running towards home.

He closed the window behind him and landed on the floor of his room. It didn't look like anyone had really noticed him. Well, he hadn't heard any shouting, and he hadn't seen anyone chasing him.

"Claws in", he says, the area around him covered in black before it seemingly got sucked into the ring on his finger.

"Kid!" Plagg appeared next to Adrien's head moving around frantically, "What happened out there! You're bleeding! And why were we being chased?!" Adrien just shook his head.

"I - I don't know," Adrien said, voice starting to shake, "I just- they just- I don't know." His whole body felt like it was shaking. The whole thing had shocked him. An akuma had appeared, and luckily it had been just after school finished. And he had gone as Chat Noir to the scene.

It had been a little odd, Ladybug hadn't answered any of his attempts to contact her, and on his way, people had, well they hadn't reacted _badly_ to him, but he had noticed that people seemed to be afraid of him? They would shrink back when they caught sight of him, something he found odd but hadn't really had time to think about it.

And then, when he made it to where the akuma was, he had seen that Ladybug had already brought in Carapace and Rena Rouge, which was also odd because from the looks of it the akuma itself hadn't been dangerous. It had already been taken down by the time he got there.

He of course had started to approach them, and asked what was going on, and they had turned to him and started to attack. Claiming he was a murderer and that they needed to bring him in. He hadn't really stuck around after that. And thus, had begun the chase into the sewer.

"They thought I was a murderer?", Adrien said, his voice laced with confusion. Plagg stopped with his wild gestures and stared at him in shock.

"_Murder_?!", Plagg sounded completely shocked, "_you_\- why in the world would they think that?! You can't even hold a grudge!"

"I don't know," Adrien said morosely, his head dropped into his hands, "I was kind of hoping you would know what they were talking about."

Plagg shook his head, "I'm as in the dark as you are, this time." He turned to Adrien's computer, "But maybe there's something on the Ladyblog? As annoying as she is, that reporter is pretty good at keeping her blog up to date," he suggested.

"Yeah," Adrien said slowly, taking a minute to reply, too long for Plagg's liking, but he would take what he could get. Adrien moved towards the computer, and unfortunately passed next to Plagg, allowing Plagg to get a whiff of him.

"Ok, wait, you need to go shower, you stink like a sewer. And take care of that wound too. As urgent as this is, I don't want to be responsible for it getting infected or something."

"Ah, that's true," Adrien chuckled, his voice sounding hollow, running his hand through his hair, "I think I have a med-kit somewhere in the bathroom, so I should be able to put some bandages on it."

"Great, go take care of that. The computer isn't going anywhere." Plagg encouraged Adrien.

After Adrien closed the door Plagg collapsed on the bed. He didn't know what was going on. All he knew was that there had been an akuma, Adiran had transformed, and then there had been an incredible amount of fear coming from Adrien and Plagg hadn't been able to help.

And now Adrien was injured, in shock, and apparently Ladybug, Rena Rouge, and Carapace had all been after him for murder. Which made no sense to Plagg because Adrien was about as far from murdery as you could get. Well, for the moment. Plagg wasn't going to hold out on him not ready to murder Gabriel in a few years if their relationship didn't change.

Plagg looked out the windows that encompassed the entire wall, and he wondered if he should quickly go and see Tikki. Just to ask her if she knew what had happened.

He turned back to the bathroom door, where he could hear the water running. No, he couldn't leave Adrien right now. But he would definitely head over to talk to Tikki once Adrien was asleep.

Adrien pulled up the Ladyblog, dread pooling in his stomach at what he might find. The words 'murderer' echoing in his head. He just hoped that this was all the work of some akuma and would be taken care of quickly.

He looked at the most recent news on the blog, and his heart felt like it would stop.

**Ladybug and company seen chasing down the murderer of the Saville Family**

He scanned through the news, trying to find anything that would tell him more about the situation.

"Wait," Plagg interrupted Adrien's scanning, "there's something odd about this."

Adrien gave Plagg a confused look, "Ummm, yeah, they think we murdered this family."

Plagg shook his head, "No, look close kid. Throughout this whole thing, they haven't mentioned your name once! They just say, 'the perpetrator', not 'Chat Noir'."

Adrien paused. Yeah, that was actually pretty weird. Adrien's face brightened, "Does this mean that this whole thing has just been a case of mistaken identity?"

Plagg shook his head, "If it were just that, then Ladybug wouldn't have chased you. You're her partner, she should have recognized you." Plagg hated the way Adrien's face fell when he finished, "Hey, keep your hopes up, you never know what we'll find."

They both continued scanning the report. Plagg's eyes were wide with shock by the end of the report, Adrien looking like someone had sucked the life out of him.

"But- what- how?!", Plagg stuttered, not believing what he was seeing. The report was making the claim that the person that Ladybug was chasing down had murdered the Saville family just two days ago.

The family consisted of the mother, two children, and an unknown father. The mother and two children had been killed apparently, but no mention of the father was made. Witnesses claimed that a figure in a black cat suit, with a belt for a tail, green eyes, and blond hair, had committed the murder.

And looking through the rest of the Ladyblog provided even less information. As in, any mention of Chat Noir that used to be there, was gone. The stories saying that Ladybug was the only hero that France had until Volpina and Carapace appeared.

Adrien kept looking, he felt like his whole world was being torn apart. Chat Noir was his freedom, his way of just being himself. There wasn't any worries about being his father's son, he was just- well, he was just him. And now it was gone.

Adrien slumped back in his chair, a hand over his lower face, his eyes filled with horror. Plagg flew to his shoulder and patted his cheek.

"Hey, it's ok, we'll figure this out," he said comfortingly, "No one forgets my kittens that easily."

Adrien smiled slightly at that, at least he had Plagg still. At that though a thought dropped into his head. Adrien's head jerked to Plagg ,"I can't go out as Chat Noir can I? Not with everyone thinking I did this," he waved to the screen.

"Well, I mean, you can, you just can't get caught!", Plagg said mischievously, hoping that news would cheer Adrien up a bit.

Adrien was shaking his head fervently before Plagg finished his sentence, "No Plagg, I don't want-" he stumbled over his words, looking at the floor, a pit of dread building in his stomach, "I don't want them to chase me down again. I don't want to chance that." He looked up, eyes glistening, "Today was horrible, I felt like a bad guy. And I had to hurt Volpina to get away, so I'm not going to go out as Chat Noir while this is unresolved."

Plagg sighed sadly, "How did I end up with a responsible chosen?" he said fondly.

Adrien snorted, "You ended up with me cause you chose me, remember?" Plagg rolled his eyes, but didn't answer back.

Adrien looked back at the computer, thinking. "Tomorrow I have school, so I can probably ask everyone there if they know what's going on?" he planned out loud. Perhaps someone would have something helpful. Well, something more than 'he's a murderer' at least.

Plagg nodded, worry showing in his eyes, "It's as good a plan as any. We don't have anything else to go off of, and we can't really do anything else."

Adrien sighed, the plan, as small and short as it was, helped bring a sense of calmness to his mind.

Tomorrow then. He and Plagg would figure things out, and fix it. Hopefully.


	2. A Plan

Adrien walked into the school. After sleeping he did feel a little better, less like the world was going to destroy him and more like it was just going to do it's best to crush him.

He walked into his classroom, feeling dread pooling in his stomach. He was holding out hope that everything the day before had been a horrible mistake.

Most everyone was already sitting down in their seats already, and Adrien sat down in his usual seat next to Nino. He was talking avidly to Marinette and Alya about the previous day's events.

"I can't believe that guy got away!" Nino complained. Alya folded her arms and huffed in annoyance.

"I know, it's frustrating to think we have a murderer just walking free out there," she said heatedly, "I'm sure Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Ladybug will get him next time he shows his face."

Adrien frowned in confusion at that, "You guys are talking about the, uh, suspect being chased yesterday? Isn't it the responsibility of the cops to chase down people like that?"

Marinette nodded, blush creeping up her cheeks, "Well, yes, that's true that the cops usually deal with things like this. But this guy isn't normal!", her eyes widened at that, "Or well, that is to say, I heard from someone that he has a power like Hawk Moth. Definitely didn't figure that out myself." She chuckled weakly.

Alya nodded eagerly, "I've even heard that they are going to call him Chat Noir!"

Adrien froze. That was _his_ name! Or at least, it was a superhero name, **not** a supervillain name or whatever they all thought he was.

"Wait, um, isn't it a little too soon to be naming him something like that?" Adrien interjected. "I mean, he only just appeared yesterday, right?"

"It's never too soon to name a supervillain!" Alya said zealously. "I wonder if he's working with Hawk Moth or if he's working alone." she wondered.

"Nah," Nino shook his head, "As bad as Hawk Moth is, I've never seen him actually kill anyone, so I doubt the two are working together."

Adrien felt his mouth open in shock. They thought Chat Noir was _worse_ than Hawk Moth?! Well, if he was an actual murderer he could understand that reasoning, but he _isn't_!

Adrien glanced around the rest of the classroom, noticing that some of the others were listening in. And they seemed to agree with what Nino and Alya were saying. Everyone seemed to think that Chat Noir was evil.

"Look, guys-" Adrien started.

"Ok everyone, class is starting," Miss Bustier walked into the classroom, interrupting Adrien. "Please, quiet down and take your seats."

Adrien sighed, frustrated over what little he had learned, and turned to face the front of the classroom. It wasn't a case of mistaken identity. At least not in the way he had hoped.

No one recognized the name Chat Noir as one of the superheroes of France. They all thought he was a killer.

_Is this the work of an akuma?_, Adrien thought to himself. If it was, then that meant that Hawk Moth had planned this. But Adrien just couldn't see how this would benefit him. Was he hoping to akumatize Chat Noir? Or was he just trying to isolate him? But if that was his plan why not do it to Ladybug? She was the more powerful of the two. If he could do this, why not make the people think they were both villains?

Adrien let out a deep sigh, running his hands through his hair. He really wanted to talk with Plagg and run these ideas by him. Adrien didn't know if any of this was even possible. Memory alteration on this level seemed incredibly powerful. So was it even possible for Hawk Moth to give it to someone? And there hadn't been any signs of a fight anywhere in the city before Adrien had been chased down.

Maybe this was an alternate universe? Adrien didn't know if that was possible either, but it was definitely the better option in his eyes. An alternate universe would mean that he hadn't been forgotten, just misplaced. Of course he had no clue how he would have ended up in an alternate universe, but he also didn't know how memory alteration on this level could have happened either.

Nino nudged Adrien, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Hey, dude," he whispered, voice laced with concern, "You ok? You were spacing out for while there."

Adrien gave a halfhearted smile, "Yeah, sorry. Just a little distracted is all." Nino didn't look convinced, but didn't push either, and Adrien was grateful for that. He didn't know how he could even begin to explain his situation.

Adrien couldn't pay attention to the teacher for the rest of the day. A part of him was relieved, he had been worried that no one would remember who Adrien was, but that didn't seem to be the case.

As soon as class finished, Adrien quickly excused himself, claiming that he was needed at home for some piano practice. He needed to speak with Plagg, and felt that it was a little more important than hanging out and getting ice cream.

"Well, I can tell you it's not an alternate universe we've ended up in by accident." Plagg told Adrien. Adrien groaned, he had been banking a lot of his hopes on that theory.

"How do you know?" he asked Plagg, "How do you know for certain that there aren't parallel universes, and that we couldn't have ended up in one by accident?"

Plagg sighed, "Kitten, look, I've been around awhile. I know quite a lot of things. And I know there aren't any parallel universes we can connect to because of the existence Bunnix and her kwami." Adrien ran a hand over his face. That was true. Bunnix, in a way, proved that alternate universes didn't exist, her coming back and changing the past had directly affected her future.

Adrien let himself fall across his bed, "That means that this is probably an akuma. And if it's an akuma then Hawk Moth has probably planned this whole thing," he groaned.

"Which doesn't make any sense!" He continued angrily, "If this was his plan, why hasn't he done anything?!"

Plagg shook his head, "I don't know, but we need more information about this." Plagg floated towards Adrien thoughtfully, "More specifically, we need information about the murder you are being accused of."

"The Saville family murder?" Adrien said thoughtfully, nodding his head slowly, "That's true. It's what I'm being accused of, so the more information I have about that, then maybe I can figure everything else out. But where can I get the most information..."

Adrien's eyes lit up as an idea popped into his head.

"Evidence! The police always pack away any evidence at a crime scene!" he gasped excitedly, "All I have to do is break into their evidence room, find what they have, and then we'll have our information!"

Plagg stared at Adrien incredulously, "Whoa whoa who!" he waved his arms frantically, "_Break in_?! Adrien! We are trying to prove that you _didn't_ break the law! And I'm pretty sure that breaking the law while trying to prove that you didn't break the law is counterintuitive."

"Plagg," Adrien looked at Plagg, eyes pleading, "We don't have any other way of getting information. I don't know what else we can do."

Plagg groaned despairingly into his paws, "Tikki is gonna laugh me out of the atmosphere when she hears about this. Fine," he looked at Adrien, "We'll go _break into_ the police evidence room."

"_But_," he said, interrupting Adrien's cheering, "We aren't gonna do it tonight, we are going to wait until we have more information about the police station itself. Cause I don't want to get there and find out that we don't know where the evidence room is."

Adrien just grinned, eyes filled with hope again, "Don't worry Plagg, I can talk to Sabrina, her father is a police officer, and she might know something."

Plagg gave a small sigh as Adrien started planning how they would handle this. He understood that getting more information about the Saville murder was important. He was the one to suggest it, but he hadn't expected Adrien to jump to breaking the law so quickly.

He guessed it was because Adrien was feeling desperate and trapped. They both were. They couldn't go out as Chat Noir, which had been their freedom ever since they had joined.

And it had only been a little more than a day since they found out that they couldn't go out. Plagg didn't want to know what it would be like in a couple of weeks. Adrien would probably be planning ways to leave the country just to rebel.

Plagg himself was feeling trapped too. Usually he could talk to Tikki, or the other kwami, even if he was in the ring and kept hidden by the Guardian. Even when he was with Adrien, he would often go out and meet Tikki. But now he couldn't do that.

Plagg had tried talking to Tikki the night before, while Adrien slept. And it was safe to say that she didn't remember Chat Noir either. She and the Guardian thought that Plagg had been taken, just like Nooroo.

When Plagg had tried to explain what had actually happened, she had just looked at him with pity.

"Plagg," she had said sadly, "I think you were brainwashed by Hawk Moth. He's just trying to use you to get me as well."

He had left fairly quickly after that. Adrien was his kitten, his chosen, and Plagg had _not _been brainwashed. He wondered if this was how Adrien felt the day before, when he realized that his friends were now his enemies, that they thought he was a killer. That sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Plagg watched Adrien study the news article about the Saville family. Even if this plan was idiotic, and more than likely to end with them in jail, it was still their only hope. They didn't know where Hawk Moth was, they couldn't talk to the Guardian, Ladybug, or anyone at school about this, and for some reason the world thought they were killers.

Plagg felt a growl slip out. Whoever had done this, trapped them like this, was going to regret it. His chosen, whether it was from his influence or whether they always had it in them, they tended to not deal well with being trapped. And neither did Plagg.

**END NOTES:**

**Ok, so a couple things that should be known about this is that I think the timeline of Miraculous Ladybug is completely wack, I'm not sure what episodes air when, so I'm just gonna make a list of things that either happened, or things that are known by certain characters and what not. If you have questions, just ask.**

**Lila Rossi just plain doesn't exist here. I think her character is kind of useless, and only exists to create drama, which is dumb because there are better ways to do that. Like everyone forgetting who Chat Noir is.**

**Ladybug knows who Carapace and Rena Rouge are, but they do not know who she is, and Chat Noir does not know who they are and vice versa. (I can't remember if or when Chat Noir knows their identities, so for the sake of this fic, he just doesn't know)**

**Obviously Chat Noir and Ladybug don't know each other's identities.**

**Chat Noir and Ladybug have only met Bunnix the one time.**

**I also wasn't quite sure about the characterization of Plagg. From what I've seen he seems kind of lazy, and doesn't really actually talk to Adrien about things outside of asking for cheese, or talking about love interests. I don't really like that cause it makes him kind of useless to Adrien as a guide or helping hand, which I kind of thought he was supposed to be. So I apologize if he seems way out of character in this fic.**

**Actually, I'm pretty sure that I'm probably gonna end up butchering everyone's characterization somehow. So I'll just apologize in advance for that.**


	3. A New Player

Walking to class, Adrien felt like the world was just a bit brighter. Having a plan really did change how hopeless he had felt the day before. The current plan was simple. Talk to Sabrina and ask her questions about the layout of the police station. And more specifically, figure out where the evidence room was. Once he had that information, he and Plagg could plan how to break into the evidence room.

Adrien smiled brightly. For whatever reason, having a plan made everything seem a little easier to handle. He smiled at Chloe on his way into the classroom. She was on her phone, and only gave him a wave in return.

Walking into the classroom, he glanced around. He saw that Marinette and Alya were already sitting at their desk - and across from them was Sabrina.

He walked towards Sabrina, a slight hop to his step.

"Hey, Sabrina!", he gave her a small wave. Sabrina pulled back in surprise.

"Oh! Hey, Adrien." she said, chuckling nervously, "Was there something you needed from Chloe? She's just outside, and I can get her if you need her."

"No, that's okay." Adrien shook his head, he didn't want to deal with Chloe just yet. "I actually wanted to ask you something."

Sabrina's eyes widened in surprise, "Really? What would you need to ask _me_?"

"Well," he said, "I was thinking about the law recently, and I realized that I actually didn't know much about the police here. I've never even seen their station! And so now, well, I'm just really curious about the way it looks." He finished off with a smile, hoping she wouldn't question his reasoning too much.

He and Plagg had really tried to figure out the best way to ask about the layout of the police station without it being suspicious. But there weren't a lot of ways to ask about that sort of thing without it somehow being part of your job. So, here was hoping nobody questioned this curiosity of his.

"You've never seen any part of the station before?" Sabrina asked incredulously.

Adrien rubbed the back of his head nervously, "Well, I've seen the main part, the public part. But I was wondering what the rest of it looked like. You know, like the evidence room and the um… well, all the other rooms."

"Oooh," Sabrina's face cleared in understanding, "Well, I can't really help you there. I've never been in any other part of the station either. Sorry." She said, an apologetic look on her face.

Well, crap. Adrien hadn't thought of that. He'd just assumed that she would have seen the rest of the station at some point.

"Oh, well, um…" Adrien didn't know what to do. This had not been something he or Plagg had planned for. They had both thought Sabrina would know more about the station. He could feel Plagg scrambling around in his breast pocket. He was probably trying to communicate a new plan to Adrien, but Adrien's mind had blanked.

Before he could turn and go to his seat he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around he saw Marinette standing there. She was nervously shifting her feet, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Hey, Marinette." He smiled at her, "Was there something you needed?"

"Um, well, I just heard you talking with Sabrina. I wasn't eavesdropping!" she exclaimed, raising her hands defensively, " I just, overheard. And I thought that, you know, maybe, well, getting a tour of the police station would be a great field trip!" She said quickly, her words coming out in a rush, "I could ask Miss Bustier for us to do it in a few days."

Adrien felt stunned. A field trip? A tour of the police station? That would be fantastic! He would be able to see it himself which would be better for planning than just learning about the layout from someone else.

"That would be great, Marinette!" he said earnestly. She blushed, her face turning almost entirely red.

"Ah, you're welcome, it's- um- it's no problem," she stuttered, before rushing back to her desk.

Adrien sat down himself, feeling even happier than he had just ten minutes before.

"Well," he heard Plagg whisper from his pocket, "That worked out incredibly well."

Adrien just smiled. Yeah, it had. Which was really weird, cause he usually had bad luck. But he wouldn't question it right now. Right now, he would just enjoy this bit of good luck. Who knows, maybe Ladybug's good luck had just rubbed off on him a little.

"You aren't trying."

"Believe me, I am trying as hard as I can."

Dark chuckling, "Obviously not hard enough. You don't have them yet."

"It's a slow process, if I rush it, too much damage will be done."

"We don't care about the damage. We care about progress. And you are not making progress. You are obviously not committed to this-"

"**NO**! I **am** committed, I will try harder to get them."

"Hmph, we'll see. You have one week to show that you are making progress. If nothing has changed, then- well, you know what will happen then."

**End Notes:**

**Ok, so this chapter was crazy hard to write for some reason. I think it's because it's just mostly an intermediate chapter. But either way, it's done now. And I know it's super short, but I didn't want to add anything else in the chapter because it would have felt crammed to me.**


	4. The Crime Scene

Moving quietly over the roofs of Paris, Adrien paused every now and then to listen and make sure that the other heroes weren't around.

In the distance he could hear an akuma attack, so that would keep the other heroes busy. As horrible as it was Adrien hoped that the battle went long enough that he made it back.

It was late, the sun had gone down, and Adrien had made the, probably idiotic, decision to go out in his suit. He wanted to check out the Saville home, where the family had been murdered.

Plagg had told him this wasn't the brightest of his decisions, but he had to start his investigation somewhere. The field trip to the police station was going to take place the next day and Adrien wanted to get a good look at the crime scene beforehand.

He had made sure to read up on how to handle crime scenes- he didn't want to accidentally ruin it or implicate himself somehow. And the main thing he had found about how to deal with crime scenes was, don't touch anything. Pretty simple.

His plan to get into the house was just to find a window that wasn't locked, open it, take a look around, and then leave. He looked up how to open windows from the outside, and it didn't seem complicated.

He just hoped Father didn't look at his browsing history.

He didn't know what he was going to find at the scene, and he was really concerned about that. Was there going to be blood? How bad did the place look? He's pretty sure they removed the bodies- if they hadn't then he wasn't going to stick around.

He finally saw the house, and he paused on the roof of a nearby building.

A police car was on the corner, empty. Which meant the police man was probably patrolling.

"_I'll have to make sure to avoid him," _Adrien noted. He glanced down at his suit, "_I guess it's a good thing this has changed then. As much as I don't like it, it'll be helpful in hiding."_

When he transformed tonight, he had noticed that his whole look had changed. No longer was he wearing the leather catsuit of Chat Noir. Instead he seemed to be wearing a softer material, no tail, a hood, and a mask that covered the lower part of his face.

Transforming back to ask Plagg had just led to Plagg telling him that the costume will change as time goes on. And that this whole debacle had probably brought about the change in the costume.

Adrien didn't like it, but he couldn't deny its usefulness in this situation.

He moved to the roof of the Saville home and climbed down the side, his clawed gloves helping him find grip on the wall. From what he could find the family lived on the second floor of the apartment complex. And the police _were _patrolling this building. Reaching the window he started to pry it open.

"What are you doing?"

Adrien froze.

"Hmph, thought I heard something is all."

He looked down. Two cops. One was staring out into the road, looking side to side. The other was staring bemusedly at him.

"Right, and is there anything there now? Or did it disappear?"

"Hey! I didn't say I saw something, I said I heard it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, you've been hearing crap all night now, and we haven't seen anything. So please, just let us finish our shift. We're almost done for the night."

"Yeah, and what if it _was _something? What about then…"

They're voices faded as they continued their patrol.

Adrien had to take a couple minutes to unfreeze himself from the wall.

"_It's ok, it's ok, they didn't see you, and maybe didn't hear you, no big deal." _Now if he could just get himself to believe that.

With a final glance towards where the cops used to be he carefully opened the window. No alarms went off. That was a plus. He hadn't been sure what to do if there were alarms. Figured he might as well just try it and if they went off then he would just run.

He moved into the room as silently as he could. As he did he smelled something… metallic?

Landing on the floor he closed the windows behind him. Turning around he let his eyes adjust to the darker room, his cat eyes using the light from outside to illuminate the rest of the room.

His breath caught in his throat. Two beds were in the room, and dried blood covered them. A part of Adrien's mind made note that the smell must have been blood.

He needed to move. He couldn't stick around here, he needed to move and figure out what he could. He forced himself to look around the room, careful not to touch anything. Toys, dresser, nightlights. And the outline of two small bodies in tape on the bed.

' _This must have been the children's room _', Adrien felt sick. He'd read the article on the Ladyblog… but actually seeing it made it real in a way it hadn't been before.

' _These kids were murdered, and everyone thinks Chat Noir did it.'_

He didn't even know how old they had been.

Breathing shallowly, Adrien approached the beds, looking for some sort of clue he could use to figure out what happened. ' _The blood is only on the beds around the tape. No trail.' _he observed, feeling a little sick. Most likely this meant that the kids had been killed while sleeping.

He moved out of the room, into a hall. The right led to a master room. Walking in he saw a bed along the far wall. He couldn't smell any blood like he did in the children's room. The bathroom showed no disturbances either. Which left the living room and kitchen.

He moved silently down the hall and could already smell the blood coming from the other end.

Entering the living room, the first thing to draw his attention was the pool of blood on the floor in front of the front door and another outline of a body.

' _The mother' _, a distant part of his brain supplied. The article had said the mother and her two children were found murdered. The two children had been in their beds, which left the mother to die here.

Adrien swallowed. So, the children died in their sleep in bed, and the mother at the door. Perhaps she had inadvertently opened the door to the murderer? The murderer rang the bell and she died after letting him in?

' _But why? I don't think a robber would have killed her right off the bat.' _, Adrien speculated. He hadn't seen anything that screamed " _robbery" _in the house yet. But then again, he wasn't exactly a detective. And a robbery wouldn't explain how Hawkmoth was tied into it.

Adrien moved to the small kitchen, carefully watching the floor for any blood. He did _not _want to step in any and accidentally leave behind evidence that he had been here.

He reached the kitchen door and let himself look around a little more. Any clues to be found at this point would most likely be clues pointing to why the murderer had come-

' _More blood?!'_

He could see blood on the counter and a pool of blood next to the fridge. And another body outline. He stood, frozen and confused.

'_Was there a fourth person?'_

No. There hadn't been any mention of a fourth person in the Ladyblog. But then again Alya wasn't a real journalist and had been wrong before. But other news sites had said the same thing when he had done some double checking. Were the police keeping it quiet then? _Why_?

_Click._

' _Door!', _Adrien made it across the kitchen and pulled himself atop the fridge in one leap. From his vantage point he watched the front door open. He could see the police tape in front of the door, and a person ducking beneath it. The police- the ones patrolling the complex!

The policeman carefully avoided the pool of blood as he stepped further into the apartment. He had a flashlight and kept the apartment lights off. Presumably to prevent an intruder from realizing they were there.

He walked slowly and seemed to be searching for something. He moved into the hall, poking his head into both rooms. Adrien watched as he moved further into each, spending a couple minutes in both.

"This room is clear."

Adrien just about screamed.

Another policeman had walked into the apartment while Adrien had been watching the first one. This one was moving his flashlight around the front rooms. Including the kitchen.

Luckily he never moved the flashlight high enough to spot Adrien on the fridge.

The first man walked back in, giving the second man a disgruntled look. Neither of them noticed Adrien trying to become one with the fridge.

"The bedrooms are clear too." the first man grumbled out, "But I could have sworn I saw someone pass by the window."

The second man shook his head, "Ok, maybe you did, but there isn't a person here so maybe it was just a stray cat or something?"

The first man stared incredulously, "Really?! That would've had to be a really large cat!"

"Look, I don't know man, all I know is that we've climbed up here and we haven't found anything."

The first man huffed, "Fine, maybe it's just me being paranoid." He brushed past the second man and went out of the room, the second man following close behind.

Adrien stayed where he was, his heart still beating quickly, he should have been more careful about walking in front of and through the window.

"_Ok, looks like I'm cutting this investigation a little short."_

Making his way off the fridge he took another careful look around the kitchen. He hadn't gotten a good look before the police walked in.

The counter was cracked, blood on the ground, most of the kitchen items were thrown about as if there had been a fight.

" _What happened here? _", he thought in frustration. The papers said only three had died, but the scene here indicated four. Why keep that hidden? Was the fourth the murderer? And if it was, why do they think that Chat Noir is the murderer?

He growled in frustration. He had hoped that things would make sense if he got a look at the scene. That maybe he could figure it out without having to break in to the police station. But that was looking unlikely at this point.

Adrien moved back into the children's room, keeping himself from looking at the beds again, and keeping himself lower to the ground to avoid making shadows in the windows.

He opened the window quietly, thankful that he hadn't left it open earlier. The cop would have noticed and then he really would have been in trouble. He moved out the window, closing it behind him again, and climbed the wall to the roof. He could still hear the faint sounds of an akuma attack.

Good. At least something was going his way tonight.

He now had a lot to think about. And now he needed to actually use the tour of the police station to plan for a break in. He knew he was the one who suggested it, but that had been when he was feeling like the world was ending. Now that some time had passed and he thought about it more, he would really rather not break in.

Adrien raced across the roofs, thoughts racing through his mind.

There had been some part of him that had hoped that it wouldn't be necessary, that the crime scene would offer up enough answers to work from that information. But it only brought more questions.

The tour of the police station was tomorrow - the rise in akuma attacks hadn't gotten it cancelled yet.

He jumped over a large gap between houses.

A fourth person had died. That's what kept throwing him for a loop. And the police were keeping it quiet.

He reached his bedroom window and he moved through it to land on his bedroom floor.

Why did things have to become more complicated?

**Notes:**

**Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. So I wasn't sure I made it clear but Adrien decided to go out as Chat Noir because he figured it was worth the risk to look at the crime scene and see if he even needed to break into the police station.**

**Hopefully Adrien's thought process on the crime scene makes sense. Wasn't sure on how to describe a crime scene outside of what I have here.**  
**Also didn't know how noticeable I made it but Adrien was able to hear the door being opened due to the power of his kwami. He had enhanced hearing and the ability to see in the dark.**


End file.
